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MATCH ANALYSIS: Late Sellouf winner earns crucial victory for Vancouver FC in Winnipeg
2024-08-25
by
Benedict Rhodes, CanPL.ca Contributor (@BTFR17)
News

Final Score: Valour FC 1-2 Vancouver FC
Goalscorers: Hundal 87′; Bitar 30′, Sellouf 90+7′
Game of the 2024 season: 79
CPL match: 563

Match in a minute or less

Vancouver FC extended the lead between them and the bottom three teams in the Canadian Premier League table on Sunday, beating Valour FC 2-1 at Princess Auto Stadium to remain in the fifth playoff spot.

Gaby Bitar fired the visitors into the lead in the 30th minute, finishing off a successful counter-attack by firing a shot into the top right corner, taking a deflection on the way through. It looked like that goal would end up being the winner, but former Eagles striker Shaan Hundal tied things up from close range in the 87th minute as Valour piled on the pressure after James Cameron was sent off for Vancouver after picking up a second yellow card.

Despite Valour’s best efforts to then take the lead, which would have seen them climb into that fifth playoff spot, Ayman Sellouf won the game for the visitors — celebrating his 23rd birthday with a well-placed shot into the bottom right corner to pick up a 2-1 victory.

Three Observations

Vancouver take control of fifth CPL playoff spot with crucial victory

Sunday’s match was a crucial ‘six-pointer’ in this key stage of the 2024 Canadian Premier League season. A win would have seen Valour FC leapfrog Vancouver FC into the fifth playoff spot, which appears at the moment to be the one most up for grabs with the top four teams starting to pull away.

Instead, however, thanks to Ayman Sellouf’s 97th-minute winner, the Eagles have opened up a six-point gap over sixth-place Valour and seventh-place Pacific FC, and have a nine-point advantage over eigth-place Halifax Wanderers FC. A six-point lead with eight games remaining is by no means a guarantee at finishing in that spot, especially in a league as competitive from top to bottom like this one, but what it does do is give VFC the opportunity to decide their own fate over the final few weeks of the year.

Five of their eight matches come on the road, including two trips to Ottawa (one is next weekend) and visits to Calgary, Halifax, and Vancouver Island — and the home games will be tough as well, against Forge FC, York United, and this same Valour side — but if VFC want to prove they can compete with the best, this is the time of year to prove it. Next week’s match in particular, against an Ottawa side frustrated by conceding late to draw in Halifax this weekend, is a huge opportunity to make a statement.

Despite being pleased with the victory, and the gap that has suddenly formed over the pack of teams chasing them, Vancouver head coach Afshin Ghotbi is not satisfied still, and believes his team can be, and should be, higher up the table. Just making the playoffs for the first time isn’t enough for a team that believes they have what it takes to compete with the league’s best, and on paper seem capable of doing just that when they play to their potential — as was the case at the start of the year when they were near the top of the standings.

“Obviously we want to make playoffs, but I have higher ambitions for the group,” Ghotbi said after the game. “I think we’re not satisfied where we are in the table. We feel that we can be in the top three and we’re going to go after it, even though with eight games to go, we’re not satisfied where we are. Not at all.”

Lack of clinical finishing (and Callum Irving) prevents Valour from getting important goals

Valour FC had a lot of shots in this match, 19 to be exact, but struggled to make them count. Of those 19 shots, just six of them hit the target, including Shaan Hundal’s 87th-minute goal to temporarily tie the game.

Twelve different players had at least one shot for Valour on the day, with Hundal himself taking six, three of which were on frame. Like many of his teammates, he was left frustrated by a collective lack of clinical finishing. The team was creating chances, especially after Vancouver went down a man when James Cameron was sent off, but they failed to make most of them count, and missed a great chance to climb into a playoff spot as a result.

Still though, there were promising signs in that the team was still able to create those chances, not letting frustration affect their confidence. Now, with eight games left in the season, they believe they are doing the right things but need to take better advantage of the chances they do get in matches in order to climb into the top five by the end of the campaign.

Valour also ran into a hot goalie, with Vancouver’s Callum Irving making a number of key saves. The most impressive of the bunch was a diving stop to deny Tass Mourdoukoutas’ header from a corner kick, diving back to slap the ball off the goal line and keep his side in front.

“I think the more we can get different goalscorers on the team, the better chance we have of moving up the table,” said Hundal after the match. “We create chances, I think we’ve shown it over the last six or seven games, we’ve created quite a few chances and I think if we’re sharper in front of the the goal, [Jordan Swibel’s] done really well with taking his chances and I think a lot of the other guys on the team, including myself, can take advantage of the chances we get.

“We’re looking at one more point in certain games, three more points another game, you know? York, I missed the penalty, hit the crossbar, and that could have been three points even, or maybe one point, whatever, and that adds up at the end of the season. So we’ve just got to keep our heads up. Missing one chance, we know we’re gonna get another one and you just gotta put one of them away.”

Sellouf marks 23rd birthday with dramatic stoppage time winner that Ghotbi predicted

Ahead of Sunday’s match, Vancouver FC boss Afshin Ghotbi said on OneSoccer that he expects Ayman Sellouf to be a key player for them down the stretch of the regular season, and even went so far as to predict that the Dutch winger might score the winning goal off the bench against Valour.

Fast forward about an hour, and Ghotbi decided to bring Sellouf off the bench at halftime for the injured Vasco Fry, who was forced off the pitch with a hamstring contusion. Sellouf didn’t see a ton of the ball in his half of work, as Valour dominated possession for the most part after James Cameron was sent off for the Eagles, but in stoppage time, he made the most of his opportunity to get onto the ball.

Sellouf received a pass near the edge of the 18-yard box and cut to his left, before firing a perfectly-placed shot through a crowd of defenders and into the bottom right corner of the goal, past a diving Jonathan Viscosi. It was a great way to endear himself to the VFC fans after joining the club on loan from Pacific FC last week, and he seems to have fit in well already in his new surroundings.

What made it even sweeter for Sellouf is that Sunday was his 23rd birthday. He revealed after the game that he asked his teammates for a win as a gift, and he and the team delivered.

“Obviously you’re going to think about it,” Sellouf said after the match about scoring on his birthday. “I said before at the team breakfast that we had that the only birthday gift that I want is that we win the game, and that’s what we did, we won the game. That’s the birthday gift that I wanted and that I also scored the goal is more like like a dessert.”

Next up for Sellouf and Vancouver FC is a trip to Ottawa, where he scored an incredible solo goal in 2023 as a member of Pacific FC. There is a chance he gets his first start with Vancouver, who will be hoping he can help lead their charge toward a first-ever playoff appearance in their sophomore season if they can hang onto fifth spot, or potentially climb even higher.

CanPL.ca Player of the Match

Callum Irving, Vancouver FC

Eagles captain Callum Irving made five saves in this match, including a crucial diving stop just after the hour mark to clear Tass Mourdoukoutas’ header off the goal line.

What’s next?

Both of these sides are on the road next weekend. Valour head to ATCO Field to take on red-hot Cavalry FC on Friday night (7:30 pm MT/8:30 pm CT), while Vancouver head to the nation’s capital to play Atlético Ottawa on Saturday (7 pm ET/4 pm PT).

Watch all CPL and Canadian Championship matches live on OneSoccer. In addition to its website and app, OneSoccer is now available on TELUS channel 980 and on Fubo TV. Call your local cable provider to ask for OneSoccer today.

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